Incandescence
by flyestsk
Summary: A virus infects nearly the entire population and Tadashi Hamada is a survivor of the aftermath: a man who has lost his wife, Aiko and his child. Yet after a friend gets involved with the rebels, he finds himself in a desperate race against time to deliver a boy to a destination in San Fransokyo. AU Set in the LAST OF US universe
1. Chapter 1

incandescent

ɪnkanˈdɛs(ə)nt/

_adjective_

adjective: **incandescent**

**1**.

emitting light as a result of being heated.

"plumes of incandescent liquid rock"

**2**.

full of strong emotion; passionate.

"she felt an incandescent love for life"

**PROLOGUE**

It had begun at two in the morning.

The television in Tadashi's room had turned on by itself, broadcasting entire communities running amok on the streets in their nightclothes. He shifted off the bed and drew the blinds quietly, careful not to wake his daughter up. House lamps lighted up one after another and people made mad scrambles for their vehicles, stuffing them with their most important belongings. Screams filled the air as people streamed past, carrying their belongings, children, pets, baggage or whatever they could manage in their arms.

A persistent sting of fear had already set in on Tadashi as well and he had simply swept up his sleeping daughter into his arms, grabbed his pistol and mobile before dashing out of the house into his own car.

He had heard about the rumors of the outbreak of a mutated virus that made people "crazed with an insatiable hunger", the vaccination hoax and now the widespread pandemonium, but he never expected it to hit them with such speed and force. There had been a long enough grace period for Tadashi to know who "they" were and to plan an escape, but he had chosen to ignore it.

Now there were consequences to face and they were merciless.


	2. Chapter 2

"…Unidentified crisis, we urge all citizens to remain calm and report to the safe zone up northwards immediately… Northwards… Evacuation Camp…"

Tadashi cursed under his breath as he repeatedly twisted the knob of the radio in frustration. There had been a moments where he contemplated stepping out of his car to make a mad dash for the Times Square, but it was an impossible idea with a child in tow. The decision to drive was not even an option, given the rampaging mass outside his car. He let out an agonized groan, as the radio did nothing more than gracing him with its occasional fizzle and buzz.

"Mama?"

"Working in the lab." Tadashi answered absent-mindedly, swiping at his phone. Hell, even the wretched mobile had a different plan, refusing to give him any signal as a time like this. "We're going to a new place… On a vacation." He would have to break the news to his daughter somehow, but he decided to deal with it later.

"Mama come?"

"She'll come too, Sara. Hopefully."

"Uncle Fred and W'sabi?"

"Yeah."

"Aunt Go go?"

Tadashi nodded slightly, caressing his daughter's cheek with a free hand. Sara took hold of his hand and nuzzled it affectionately, a small joy of parenthood.

Wasabi had been the first on his hotline. Tadashi knew he could trust the man to hold down the fort and watch out for Aiko. But that didn't negate the need to ensure they were safe. He dialed repeatedly and the monotonous drone of the dial tone filled the silence until a familiar voice finally answered. "Tadashi! You have _no idea_ how long I've been trying to get hold of you." The voice sounded irate, but Tadashi was just relieved to hear it. "You need-"

"Wasabi, are you with the gang?"

"Yeah, uh, we just got out of the building. I'll get Honey on the line."

"…Tadashi?"

His muscles relaxed at sound of Aiko's voice- it gave him all the reassurance he needed. His child had her mother and he had his wife. Alive.

"Give me a sec-" Tadashi turned the mobile on speaker mode.

"Tadashi? Are you there?"

"Mama!" Tadashi's heart sank as he watched Sara grab the mobile and place it on her cheek, holding it as if it were the most important thing in the world.

"Oh, Sara!" Aiko went silent for her few moments and her voice returned trembling. "You'll be a good girl, right?" At this Sara nodded her head solemnly. "Daddy's…going to bring you…. safe…Listen to him." The ruckus in the background was making it difficult to make out what Aiko was saying.

"There's still time. I can get to the laboratory and get us all out." His voice was hardened with resolution.

"No!" Aiko almost yelled into the phone. "You need to get back onto the road, Tadashi. Drive northwards... Not to the concourse. We can fend for ourselves. You _must _take Sara to the safe zone."

"Honey, I can get there. I can get you guys out, you just-" He was desperate to do _anything_ to get them out.

"Listen, Tadashi. You'll be killing yourself and Sara if you come here." Tadashi listened helplessly as Aiko stifled a sob. "Promise me that you will keep her safe…See you soon…I…"

There was a crackle.

"Aiko? Honey?"

The line crackled again at one final attempt to grasp hold onto connection, but soon went dead. Tadashi growled and slammed his fist against the dashboard. There wasn't even enough time to say a proper goodbye. The vehicle shuddered slightly and the radio suddenly sprang to life, but instead of a radioed emergency announcement, it began playing Stevie Wonder's "What a Wonderful World." The sweet melody rang out sickeningly as sirens blared madly and radios bleeped in the background. Tadashi kicked the reverse gear roughly and swerved the car off the pavement, knocking down the lamp behind. No one would notice if it were destroyed anyway. It would simply be an additional prop to the scene outside. As his car sped past, there were people running amok on the streets, smashing glass panes and grabbing whatever their hands could find.

"Call Mama?" Sara asked, trying to take the mobile from the dashboard.

"No. Not now Sara." Tadashi replied curtly, removing the device from her reach. Bad move. The little girl immediately burst into tears. He wanted to give his daughter some form of comfort that she badly needed. After all, the child was barely three and even the whole night scene was beginning to take a toll on his twenty-five year old body.

Sara's sobs soon descended into a frightened scream from the sudden impact of a man as he threw himself against their windscreen.

It startled Tadashi just as much and he swerved into the crowd, breaking only in time to stop the car from going out of control. The man, now on the road, was gripping his head as if something inside him was trying to escape. He convulsed wildly against the ground as his face and neck contorted in an unnatural manner. In a few seconds, he was groping blindly around the ground, his lips flared up to the sides, a grotesque display of canines and saliva.

Instinctively out of shock and fear, Tadashi reversed the car, speeding over the limits until they reached the road leading to the highway up north. In his haste to leave he hadn't brought anything, and it dawned upon Tadashi that now he and Sara were as good as homeless. He berated himself for the hindsight but there was nothing he could do except to continue driving. The road to their apartment was now completely jammed up and there was no way their car could get through the crowd anyway.

Behind them was a surging mass of people running for their lives while plumes of grey smoke and fragment littered the pavements as cars rammed into each other. The road was now pillowing with smoke and the acrid scents filled the air so thickly that it seeped through the windows of their vehicle, causing Sara to cough and wheeze. Tadashi pulled his daughter away from the door with his free hand and slammed down on the door locks.

"Don't go near the windows, Sara –"

As soon as Tadashi spoke there was another scream from behind. That was when he saw them. Silhouetted by the hazy smoke and darkness, they seemed to be making some kind of eerie grand entrance. The group of about fifteen slouched steadily towards the chaotic mob, moaning loudly and audibly as they shambled forth, unaffected and indifferent to the havoc and useless clutter around them.

The little voice beside him let out a small sob and Tadashi stared down at his daughter; it had always stunned Tadashi how he saw Aiko in Sara, especially in those lavender coloured eyes. He drew in a breath before taking Sara's hand in his own and squeezing it.

"I know it's scary, baby girl. But I won't let them hurt you." Tadashi took a final look at the limp bodies dragging themselves through the roads before he stepped on the accelerator, banging roughly past several cars blocking the entrance of the highway. He turned his face away from his daughter, hoping she would not see the tears.

There was no going back now.


	3. Chapter 3

Tadashi pressed the gauze to his side as he attempted to stand up, hauling the supplies with his free hand. His blood splattered across the dirt and he kicked it with his shoe, attempting to cover it up. Leading a group of rogues to the safe zone with a blood trial was probably not the best of ideas. He cursed inwardly- his new pair of converse was ruined. But he couldn't be bothered any longer; he could worry about the rest of the shit on his shoe if he made it back alive first.

His chest tightened as he lurched forth, the pain piercing his side. He let out a mirthless laugh as he helplessly watched his bloody slowly ooze from the tear wound, realizing that he had put himself into some kind of juxtaposition, where he had the capability to be his own saviour or grim reaper.

Tadashi halted at the bridge and scanned his surroundings. No, not good. He couldn't go back on that path in his current state. There were too many cars and they choked up the bridge. The risks of a lone clicker or runner lurking behind the shadows of the vehicles were high. Tadashi had already spotted one- a young child with matted hair strapped tightly onto a car seat.

The scene might have brought back some familiarity if half of the creature's face had not been eaten away by fungal growth. The grimy mass was beginning to creep into the child's left eye, which was being held limply by a rotting muscle at its decaying socket. It must have sensed Tadashi for it was not thrashing wildly against its seat, eyeball swishing back and forth like a pendulum. It was much too grotesque and Tadashi looked away, helplessness washing over him. There were actually two routes across bridge, one was the highway and the other was a wild path by the sides. Wild because it had been barely touched by humans, meaning lower chances of encountering infected. But it included going through harsher terrains.

He let out an exasperated sigh as he trudged forth. The alternate route back would not be any different from this route either; the debris and clutter posed just as much danger as running into the infected. Tadashi was not new to this environment- in fact he had been doing this run for two years and knew the congested terrain inside and out. But now he could not think cohesively and his head was spinning from the rapid loss of blood. His mind now flickered like a weak flame as blood trickled from his wound with each step. He abandoned the gauze in favour of pure pressure from his arm, stuffing the limp cloth into his pocket.

"All this trouble to gather intel." He let out a watery gurgle. His throat was dry and crackly.

"God knows if I'll still be able to remember all that shit."

Barely a few kilometers after, Tadashi began to become delirious, his steps becoming distracted and sloppy. But the thought of dying in the middle of nowhere somehow kept him alive. It would have been a little anti-climatic to die just like that. At least dying in the infected clusters would make him somewhat more of a hero than the bitch who gave up too early.

He stumbled and fell onto the dusty road, choking and wheezing as he did so. His will to carry on was depleting faster by each second but he scrabbled to continue moving. Somewhere behind him came the rustle of dry leaves and the cracking of twigs. Tadashi's body tightened in apprehension as the noise drew closer, followed by the low, unmistakable moans and pattering of feet. The moment he turned around, he saw the first runner. His hands trembled slightly as he fired a shot at it: the gun was meant to be the last resort, and the runner's fifteen other friends coming in from all directions were his consequences.

Tadashi groaned, holding onto his side as he limped out of the clearing and to the nearest car, a silver indium. He tossed his backpack up onto the vehicle and scrambled up, hoping to gain a clearer vantage point. To survive required the skill of thinking ahead of even neuron impulses themselves. Every action required planning and extreme precision. Tadashi drew in a breath and made a head count- there were about 28 of them crowding around the hood of the car and more were streaming in fast. There was no emotional connection involved, no guilt or pain. Only cold, calculated shots aimed at the infected. It wasn't murder. It was pest extermination.

The whole engagement lasted for about ten minutes, but with the pain ebbing in his sides, it felt as though he was fighting a never-ending battle. Soon thick rings of corpses, smoking at the heads, were lined around the Mercedes. He didn't know how many he'd taken out but it was enough to bring him down. Tadashi lay atop the car, panting heavily. He closed his eyes as his hands felt around his sides for the supplies. He brought the backpack close into him and squeezing his chest towards its warmth to dull the pain beating against his abdomen. His supplies were intact, and most importantly, _he _was intact. But the gun was now useless: he was entirely out of ammo. Panic shot through his spine and he slid down the hood of the car painfully. He continued on the dirt path for about another twenty minutes, expecting another hoard, but none came.

Soon the camp was within sight and walking distance. Muffled shouts could be heard and Tadashi unbuckled all his equipment, dumping them unceremoniously on the ground despite protests that he was still "outside the zone". He laughed grimly at their warnings. It wouldn't matter if he died now, he had served his purpose to them in the very least and they could easily take him out if he were to be infected. But now that he was still alive and _retained his cognitive ability,_ he had _the apex _to answer to.

"Where the heck did you come from, Tadashi?"

He grimaced as a man from behind reached out in concern. Dreading the heaviness of bodily contact, Tadashi stumbled past the man, but not before tossing the bag of supplies behind him.

* * *

**Apologies for the delayed updates. I hope you will enjoy chapters 2 and 3. As I will be extremely busy with school from this week onwards (A levels year! The joy!), I'll be doing updates of at least 2-3 chapters in a go. This is to make up for the lost time. I really appreciate the viewers who took their time to drop reviews/comments and I hope you guys will continue supporting and sharing this story as it progresses! :) **


	4. Chapter 4

The medic pressed a bandage against Tadashi's wound and immediately he grimaced, but more from the stench of blood and antiseptic that overwhelmed his senses.

"Pretty bad shape. Bad run?" Asked the medic casually.

Tadashi kept silent, slumping back onto his bed.

"Don't turn over on your side, son. It's going to tear the stitches open if you keep doing that."

Much too tired and weakened to complain, Tadashi only let out a grunt, adjusting his body uncomfortably. He placed an arm on his eyes to block out the piercing lights. The stress and insomnia had taken its toll on his body; aches and strains had begun to reveal themselves in different muscles, loosening and tensing some in a completely unnatural fashion. There had never been a proper infirmary unit established in the camp. The medic had left all the necessary first-aid equipment Tadashi needed or would need to tend to my injuries by his bedside.

He had done a good job with the treatment though. Tadashi could feel no inconsistencies in the linings of the bandage when ran his hand across their smooth grooves. _Something Aiko would have done well too, _thought Tadashi.

The encounter with the infected earlier had left a stream of adrenalin behind in his system, and his hands had been trembling non-stop ever since. It had been the same routine for two years, productively spent on hunting and taking the infected down in the most violent of methods, from bludgeoning to strangling them with his bare hands. But what else was there to life? Existence.

As the residual energy in his brain seeped away, his ears were filled with the sounds he could only hear: moans of the forsaken and the wet splatter of bullets as they penetrated a skull. With that, he lay back down on the bed, closing his eyes.

He was so tired of it all.

* * *

It was nightfall when Tadashi woke up.

Light from a dim, flickering lamp replaced the electric ones above. He massaged his throbbing head, which was strained from sleep inertia gently. He sat up with a groan, kicking the frame of the bed as he did so.

"Take it."

An outstretched hand offered Tadashi a cup of water. He tried to turn away but realized he couldn't. She was holding onto his arm with a firm grip.

"Take it." She said again, but with slightly more force. Tadashi received the cup grudgingly, though he was actually grateful for the cool liquid that soothed his parched throat.

"When did you get into the mood for a visit?" He finally asked humorlessly. Tomago shrugged.

"I got you a job."

He reached for the screwdriver next to his bed and lay back down. He began spinning it in his hand, watching it intently as it flipped and landed back into his grip perfectly.

She slapped it out of his hand and Tadashi closed his eyes, sighing. "Dog job. The usual thing." Tomago fumbled with her pocket and passed a crumpled piece of paper to him. "Details."

On the paper was a familiar symbol of a firefly. The symbol of rebels who wanted out of the dictatorial and routine system of zones, those who felt that life was worth more than merely existing, those who felt that they needed to _survive_, to restore the Earth to whatever flourishing point it was in before. It was an idealistic cause that threatened to take away the position of whatever was left of governments, thus the label "rebel". Those found involved with the Fireflies were thrown out of the zones and ties were severed, but in a twisted way they also got what they wanted. Now they would not simply exist, but they had to fight for their survival, competing with the rogues and infected for a place in the world. Tadashi smirked and shook his head. Life offered itself with such paradoxical opportunities.

The paper was a job note, with instructions.

SUBJ. ATTN:

TADASHI H.

TARGET LOCATION:

TOWN MALL

TRANSACTION:

M4A1CARB (x2)

M16A2 5.56x45mm (x2)

GLOCK19 9x19mm (x2)

FOOD RATIONS (TBC)

After reading the note, Tadashi crumpled it up and held it above the flame of the lamp.

"I don't run unless I ask for it."

"Just be grateful that _I got you a job_." Tomago settled herself onto a chair.

Tadashi watched the paper shriveled and char as it lingered in the fire. Soon enough, everything from ash to unsettled scores and unpaid debts blanketed the air. He pulled it out of the lamp when only the whites of the paper were left and leaned back against the bed frame.

"When do I start?"

Tomago sat up straight and looked up at him. Her eyes were so tense they almost seemed to be suppressing some kind of panic. "Now. You _must _go now."

He looked at her exasperatedly. She shook her head.

"No, you… you don't understand." She paused to draw in a breath. "This… It wasn't what it was supposed to be. It's different."

Tadashi was starting to get annoyed.

"Well maybe if you stop being so damn mysterious about it I would actually understand its importance!"

Tomago's body abruptly stiffened and her grip on the chair tightened. "I thought you were all about saving people." She had finally pulled out her triumph card: his Achilles heel. "You lost my sister and my niece." Her eyes narrowed at the mention their names. "Here's your chance to make it up. But now there's a twist to it, that's all."

"Stop that, Tomago." Hissed Tadashi. She knew the sore spot well enough to press onto it, _hard. _"I told you I'd go."

Her expression relaxed slightly at his promise. "I'm coming with you on this one." She finished off, before she stood up to leave.

Tadashi grabbed her arm. "You kidding? We work separately."

His hand tightened as she struggled in his grip. "We _never _meet contacts together. Leiko Miyazaki, you will _not _get implicated in this." He hissed.

Tomago shook his hand off roughly, securing her ponytails as she walked towards the door. "No, I'm not. I'll meet you at the underground opening." Her reply quavered with each word.

Tadashi watched her go. She stumbled unsteadily out of the room, offering a muttered apology as she banged into someone outside-. Fear was easy to sense, especially when it radiated so heavily from one.

"Screw this," he growled, picking up his rucksack and gas mask from the ground.


	5. Chapter 5

The derelict mall stood alone in the darkness, the soft glow of its bright neon signs flickering ever so gently, forming shadows which danced about rocks and growths.

The mall was designed by a famous architect in a minimalist or "neo-hipster" way, as Tomago liked to put it. He had seen enough pictures from Aiko to be able to discern buildings of a similar layout.

Before their relationship soured, Tomago had always wanted to talk to the family of three about how it would all be, dreaming of how life after college. She once brought up something about becoming a stunt driver, a profession which immediately met with Aiko's strong disapproval.

Tadashi wondered if she had ever imagined herself plastered to a wall in an abandoned mall, listening for infected with every step. It was a crazy situation after all, so unbelievable. But crazy never mattered because they thought it wasn't their problem; or rather, they never thought it would become _their_ problem. Everyone was so cooped up with their own dreams that they forgot the real threat lurking outside.

They always did.

Tadashi and Tomago tried to keep to empty spaces as much as possible, avoiding physical contact with any object in their pathways. Finally they reached the stairwell leading to the basement. A burning scent hit Tadashi and corpses littered the ground, the greenish muck still seeping out of their bloated bodies. Fresh kills. His grip on his machete tightened.

Tomago turned to Tadashi. "Can you see anyone?" she whispered.

He shook his head. "No sign."

He signaled Tomago to flank the left while he continued on the right side. Some infected may have been taken out, but the original threat was still there. They had to stay vigilant regardless.

"She's there," Tomago called out, bending down beside a fallen girl. The unmistakable sign of the Firefly was tattooed on her neck, large enough to be seen when exposed, but small enough to be concealed with a shift of the collar. She beckoned Tadashi to her. "I think she's injured."

Their contact lay silently curled up in a fetal position next to a locker on the ground, her face constipated with pain as though she were suffering from a temporary cramp. But Tadashi saw it the second the image registered in his mind.

_Death._

There was a particular quality about dead people. Minute details that may have slipped past the untrained eye, seemingly insignificant on their own. But all the signs were laid out plainly. The loose grip of the gun, relaxed arch of the body… Tadashi gently turned her wrist out: the blunt and blood stained mark of a bite. Infected.

He moved the girl's head over and dapples of red and brown surrounded a hollow in her head, forming a gruesome flaxen halo.

"Shot herself," said Tadashi, but more to himself. "She was only a child."

He stood up and walked back towards the stairwell, disgust and anger rising from within his gut. He had to get out of here quick. He turned around and strode towards the long stretch of lockers against the wall, kicking one with all the ferocity in his legs. It was the same _goddamned, fist-clenching, head tearing_ ferocity he used to bash up those bloody liars, the ones that claimed to be the world's salvation. Both the FEDRA and fireflies were feeding innocent citizens with a truckload of crap from their comfortable hidey-holes, promising to pull them back from the brink, only to abandon them when the shit really got tough.

They were the same, all of them_. Disgusting piglets_ who only wanted to save their own hide.

_Damn it all, the bullshit._

It was only when he almost killed a little political bastard with one of his inventions that he realized the rage was making him an aggressive maniac which could potentially kill him one day if he wasn't careful.

But he relinquished these moments where he let his rage take over, the days where the frustration that made his blood boil and vessels throb with grim exhilaration.

That insatiable hunger and thirst for revenge against the ones who started it all: _infected._

It was for this monster that they kept him alive, despite his insubordination and cold demeanor. It was what kept him alive and it was what people lusted after. His weaponry and robotics were all designed to dish out the most malevolent punishments: lobotomisers, atom-structure degenerators that would literally _melt _the living lights out of those fungal creatures.

He knew they_ loved_ this, and he would use that against them as long as he could. In fact, it would allow him to get away with almost anything.

The grip on his machete tightened and he slowly strode towards Tomago. One stab was all it took and he would be done.

Tomago was not completely blind herself either, and realised what Tadashi was thinking of the moment he began advancing.

But Tomago simply watched him passively. "She sacrificed herself for this, you know."

Tadashi could feel air forcibly gushing out of his apertures as he strained himself to take longer breaths, count to ten and do just everything he knew about calming himself down.

He could not lose it now- he would lose his intel and effectively breach any form of agreement between him and the apex if he let the rage consume him. A complete ending to this unfinished business was required, but he wanted a minimal loss of innocent lives. And then there was that fact she was half of Aiko.

Aiko. Bile rose in his throat with the thought of what he almost did.

He was as good as a murderer now.

He eventually turned around to face Tomago, who was used to waiting out his sudden outbursts. He needed them, in her opinion. "Finished?"

"Yes." He breathed out. Easy. "The contact is cut. The deal is off. Let's go."

"No it isn't."

Tadashi halted. He swore he could feel the heat burning in his ears and palm as Tomago casually tossed a key into his hand.

"Plan B."

* * *

Locker 38 was at the end of the row, hidden nicely behind a few dustbins. Whatever was in there probably wouldn't get out on its own, unless it miraculously sprouted legs.

"You have a lot of explaining to do, _Tomago_." He spat the last three syllables out like it was poison in his mouth.

"I don't think I owe you anything, Hamada." She let out a laugh devoid of any emotion. "After all that you did to me."

As much as Tadashi hated to admit, it unnerved him and to some extent, _saddened_, him that they had reached such a state. When did endearing Gogo become sardonic Tomago?

He twisted the plastic key into the keyhole of 38 and with a mechanical click, the metal door swung open, revealing a dark, black suitcase.

Tadashi heaved it out of the locker, careful not to let it drop. It was heavier than he would admit and he had to struggle for a few moments before he managed to get the thing out of the locker. What the hell was in it anyway? He unzipped it, removing the hard cover of the suitcase.

He slowly stood up as the cover fell open, running his hands through his hair. He paced around the room before turning to Tomago, her face still is stoic as ever.

"_What the hell_ is the meaning of this?"

Inside the suitcase was his personal project: Baymax, a machine whose rays were capable of regenerating protein growth in humans. But he had been so caught up chauffeuring between runs and the apex that he had no time to revisit it. And when Tadashi rebooted the machine, he was only met with the words "SYSTEM FAILURE."

It had hit him like a truck.

_The chip was gone. _

The chip that controlled all the intricacies of his invention was missing.

His eyes fell on the girl properly for the first time. She looked so ordinary. Normal. Not some _scheming_, _manipulative bitch. _

He wanted to kick himself for being so naïve. He should have seen it coming.

"You did know about all of this did you?" He snarled.

"That girl was supposed to take you to the client." She backed away as he gained proximity towards her. "But they wanted leverage in case something happened… to her."

He was now dangerously close and Tomago felt slightly threatened by his overwhelming presence. But she continued holding her stare defiantly, _no_, she would not show any sign of weakness. Time was running out.

"They were afraid you would run—"

She flinched as his fist connected with the wall behind her. A sickening shatter was followed by a wet sensation on her shoulder, and soon her upper garment was stained with red as the man clenched his fist tighter, grinding his wound into the dent formed on the wall.

"_Get off me._" She commanded, though Tadashi could tell she was visibly shaken. The rims of her eyes were reddening, but she still bore her steely gaze.

It was black iris against brown as they silently challenged each other, both not willing to back down. An unfamiliar and dangerous pang of guilt suddenly coursed through Tadashi. _When was the last time we even spoke decently to each other?_ He thought. Leiko was Aiko's sister. He was supposed to _protect_ her.

But here they were, the betrayed and the indignant. He shoved her away roughly, willing the _sickening softness of kinship_ to be rid of his mind.

_Kinship would be the downfall of you, Tadashi bloody Hamada._ He'd let his guard down by letting her access his dorm. For shit's sake, how could he have gone over the fact that she graduated from the exact same college as he did?

He looked down at her disgustedly.

"You had better spit my chip out or I swear I will _rip your damned vocal chords out personally_."

The anger of the wrongly accused surged through Tomago. How dare he look at her as if _she_ were the _pile of shit_? If there were anyone more deserving of the title it would be he. But Tomago was not about to play the sudden matyr and spring him with the rationale behind the whole fiasco.

_No, she was not. _

She was going to watch him shrivel in the humiliation when he realised the importance of the business. Tomago obscurely entertained the idea of him perhaps even, sunken in shame, would do her the favour and rid himself from the world.

She hated him with every fibre in her body. Tomago knew he tried to make things up, but he left out the fact that she did not _want _it. She wanted him gone. If picking the healing scar was what it took, she would do it. She would scab it and rip it off over and over.

She smiled at him in a grotesquely saccharine manner.

"You can't."

Before she could react, his hand was pinned against her windpipe, causing her to choke and gag.

"You have NO idea how much damage Baymax can deal." His voice had dropped a notch.

"I... C…Can't…Unless…" She kicked at his injured spot, sending him reeling backwards with a painful gasp. She coughed and hacked violently. "Y…You have to meet the client. But there's more."

Tadashi bit back harsh words. _Obviously_ it took someone with great knowledge to know that was not all.

"Do whatever they tell you to do. No questions."

Tadashi fought back the urge to kill her right there and then. But now that the Fireflies had the chip with them, he was powerless. He had to get it back. If Baymax were complete, Tadashi would have ensured it was on lockdown security. But the fact that Baymax was only a high-functioning prototype was what tied him down completely to the Fireflies.

Because prototypes were still prototypes.

And prototypes were about as stable as malfunctioning robots.

He had to take his bloody hat off to Leiko Miyazaki.

* * *

**A/N: Baymax is featured as a machine in the story, as this is more of an exploration of Tadashi's relationship with the other characters. Thank you for the patience and also thank you to the reviewers/favourites/follows! It's really heartening to know that there are people interested and reading my story. Please do continue to R&amp;R! **


	6. Chapter 6

Nostalgia had always had a painful grip on Tomago.

Tadashi used to be a symbol of _stability, comfort, familiarity, family_.

The feelings lingered around Tomago as they trudged across the open silently. Yet they disappeared as fast as they came, and were quickly replaced with a dull ache in her chest.

"I'm sorry," she breathed out at last, unable to stand the silence.

At this, Tadashi's body stiffened. He jerked his head towards Tomago, his eyes boring into hers with rage so intense that it made her afraid. And when she was afraid she remembered; remembered why they were estranged.

Fear and mistrust.

It should have made her pleased that she had finally gotten an upper-hand. If the situation were different she would have basked in the satisfaction of finally goading some reaction out of the man, but instead, here she was, feeling… guilty.

This pressure, the suffocating silence and the dryness in her throat: they were all physical and emotional reactions she thought she had lost a long time ago. The anger she had felt towards the decrepit world still remained, but it had dissipated into a tiny flame over time.

Now she was simply confused.

It had been years since Tomago had spent more than half an hour in the presence of Tadashi alone. The wound between them had once again become inflamed, but if Tomago were to be honest, the pain had long subsided and now only the smarting itches remained. She wished it was gone, but there was just too many things Tomago could not let go of.

_The screams, the smell of blood, Aiko's hands gripping hers tightly._

She didn't even get to see Sara one last time.

Tomago felt her hands trembling and she clenched them tightly into a fist. A salty taste left her mouth as her breath turned erratic.

Those flesh-eating bastards made her lose everything she had in only a day. There was not a moment Tomago had not wished that she would wake up in a painless realm. But she was too much of a coward to die. She feared death and she hated herself for it.

And Tadashi.

Tadashi was her only known living relation. He had indulged her in her blame game for long enough. He knew he needed to let her vent her rage but he did not expect her to become relentless. It turned into a game that she never outgrew. A harmless bite that became a vicious attempt to the throat. But rage was the only emotion she had left and rage she would feel. Tomago was not ready to become the lifeless apparition of herself that she feared. The one who could do nothing more but stare blankly at the ceiling and await death.

She was too far gone and she knew it. Yet she still dreamed of salvation.

Tadashi seemed to notice her change in demeanor, as his expression soon dissolved into another unreadable one. He remained silent, but even so she could tell he was keeping his anger in check. Tomago soon found herself further scrutinizing the pale and tired the person in front of her.

Tadashi's jaw muscles were taught and his grip on his machete tightened as he bore the expression a naked one would when humiliated by lecherous eyes. He was no longer the friend she used to know. No longer the brother.

He was just Hamada. _Cruel and callous Hamada._

"What haven't you told me?"

Tomago's breath began picking up again. Her pace slowed as emotions swarmed under her skin. Tomago wanted to give a bitter response, but Gogo- that dormant persona who had somehow inexplicably resurfaced, wanted to sit down and explain things in detail. She wanted to share and finally be able to trust someone again.

She craved comfort in this dark and dank world.

"T…There is a boy. They need you to get him to the SFIT laboratory."

The words tumbled loosely off her mouth and Tomago dodged Tadashi's gaze, the heaviness of confession settling upon her. What she had to say next rolled out of her tongue, feeling thick, unbelievable and sloppy.

"His immunity is the possible cure."

The only sound that followed was the whistle of the wind.

* * *

**A/N: More frequent updates will follow once November is over. Enjoy chapter 6!**


	7. Chapter 7

Tadashi twirled his machete in his hand. It was almost hilarious, how life always had a way of maintaining balance with its complex system of give and take. It didn't matter if nearly three quarters worth of its ecosystem formed over eons was nearly wiped out to extinction. It would still find a way to climb back up.

Nature had proven that time and time again.

With each extinction, a new era was ushered in. It held the promise of hope, the promise of a new generation whose offspring were hardier, stronger, more resilient. Extinction had happened before and obviously the world had no qualms about it happening again, even if the cause was something _artificial_. It was mankind who drove itself to the brink of extinction and now they would pay with their own kind. Nature allowed the handiwork of man to destroy it inside out.

Yet ironically nature itself gave man a leeway. Some say that which was born came by the grace of the Gods themselves, while others saw it as a freak accident- the product of witchcraft or occultism. But Tadashi was one of those who knew better. With time there came mutation. With mutation there came the "_hardier, stronger and resistant"_. And with it came forth the very embodiment of life itself: the _immunes. _Sparse and scattered they were, but not unheard of. They existed even before things got out of hand. Stories of people who were supposedly infected but rose up unharmed spread like wildfire. It bred the hoax of a successful vaccine and people became complacent. After all, they had won another battle yet again had they not? _Avoided yet another catastrophe_, in their deluded little minds.

It filled Tadashi with much self-loathe to recall he was one of these very people. Nonetheless, the immunes gave people a reason to continue living before, and they carried on fueling it today. They were perhaps a species of human Tadashi felt the most sympathetic towards, despite their obvious advantage. Even if they were immune to the virus, they were not spared from the cruelty of the world. Immunes were subject to almost every emotion available to the human cortex. They were symbols of hope, hate, envy, fear, disgust…

And there was the Apex. Tadashi would need a substantial enough cover if he wanted to avoid the subject of possible contact with an immune. He had little clue of what the fireflies wanted with the boy and with FEDRA's current dominance, they would want little to do with anything that could threaten it. _But the Apex. _To say they would be _interested_ in the boy would be something of an understatement.

"Give me the details and let's get moving. The longer the chip is there, the riskier it is for all of us."

Both his sudden voice and agreement startled Tomago slightly, but she squared her shoulders and trudged forward.

"His name is Hiro. We're supposed to collect him at the City Hall before sundown today."

"How the hell did they know the first deal went bust anyway?"

Tomago shrugged. "That girl probably didn't come alone. Anyway, the contact's some guy called Krei, so probably the boy's under his care." Tomago paused, her brows furrowing. "The rest of the details didn't really come through. I can't remember much."

_Krei._ The name sounded familiar to Tadashi.

_It can't be. _

"That guy you mentioned. Krei-"

"Yeah. He used to be kind of a big deal in the science industry before all this happened." Tomago interrupted before he could finish his sentence. "You know, the one with the huge tech company?"

Tadashi felt a soppy coldness flush down into his gut as he pictured the man, _Alistar Krei. _He remembered the man, with his immaculately gelled hair parted in the center and that disturbing rendition of a smile always playing on his lips. The man was huge on the science scene and there had always been something undeniably charismatic about him. Few people successfully withstood him and he even had government lapdogs waiting at his feet, giving him approval for whatever it was that he needed to conduct. Uncertainties were cast regarding the ethicality and morality behind his business transactions- Tadashi himself was no stranger to that. The profit-driven man had a warped concept of a moral compass and Tadashi doubted that fact had changed. How he ended up with the Hiro kid was one thing. But what Krei would do with his chip if he had the technology to manipulate it was something Tadashi _did not_ want to know.

"Wha do they plan to do with the boy after we deliver him to the lab?"

Tomago flung her knapsack on the dusty ground, unbuckling the straps and pulling out a bottle. Tadashi eyed her impatiently, watching as she downed a mouthful of water.

"Well, Hamada." She began as she wiped her mouth dry. "I'm just as curious as you are. But let's just say it's a win-win deal for all of us and perhaps the whole of humanity if we get the boy there okay?"

* * *

"Almost there. It's already in sight." Huffed Tomago as she clambered across the thick wall of debris. Sundown was approaching and they had little time to lose.

Tadashi glanced over at his partner as they stood atop the mound of rubble. Her eyes were half lidded from the exhaustion but there was the unmistakable glint of determination under them. It was the unmistakable look of someone who held a hope. The journey was shorter than expected and Tadashi was definite Tomago had more than cursory knowledge of her way around this place. It made him wonder if this was even her first time doing such a dog job.

There was now a conveniently placed obstruction of rundown vehicles stood in between the City Hall and the two. They could have easily crossed the roofs of the vehicles if they were aligned in a neat row, but life was bent on making things as difficult as possible. The vehicles were strewn haphazardly, several upturned and on their sides. It reminded him of his own run. It had only been two days, but with all the sudden revelations that happened in the short span of time, it had seemed like eons to him. But perhaps it was these shocks that he needed in life. They gave him an opener for the can of worms. There was anger, undoubtedly, but it was not the same, dull kind he had felt for years. It was a renewed emotion, the kind of anger and frustration at trying to _understand_. What was so important to Tomago in this whole business that she would risk his wrath repeatedly?

"It's getting dark. They'll be coming out to play real soon." Tomago muttered, her grip on her knife tightening. Tadashi could feel her leaning closer in, even if she was unaware.

"Guess we gotta do some playground bullying then, huh."

Tomago looked at Tadashi with an eyebrow raised high.

"I got your back, kid."

A smile ghosted over her lips as they began their journey towards obscurity.

* * *

A wet smear landed itself on Tadashi's face as he sliced past another clicker, silencing it before any more of its brethren were alerted by its grotesque sounds. He struggled past the debris before pulling his machete towards the clickers approaching Tomago. She was doing her best to hold out her attackers; she was more than capable of fending for herself but he knew the approaching horde was definitely going to overwhelm them.

Tadashi had long already braced himself for such an attack, but he knew it came with the risk of the two of them getting infected. The chances of becoming infected increased exponentially when dealing with a horde, especially when there were more approaching from a distance. The sun was quickly setting too. Time was clearly not on their side. There was only one way they could escape this _and _make it to the building. The steps were now a short distance from them and there was _no way_ he was about to let them become kin with the clicking bastards.

Finishing off the few clickers surrounding them, Tadashi quickly grabbed a small metal device from his pocket.

The other clickers were closing in fast. _There's not much time left._

He pulled Tomago's face to his own, holding her jaw firmly with his free hand.

"When I release this button here, you are going to run as fast as you can into that building. Don't look back no matter what happens and you _do not stop_ until you get there. You got it?"

Tomago nodded and he let go of his hand.

"3."

"Wait-"

"2."

"What about you?"

"1, GET THE FUCK OUT OF HERE RIGHT NOW!" Yelled Tadashi, roughly pushing Tomago out of the way. He released the button, throwing the device with all his might towards the clickers.

And immediately Tadashi fled towards the direction of the building, watching Tomago's figure sprint past the thicket and up the steps of the City Hall. Tadashi's legs snagged past the brambles and his throat was burning but he couldn't care less. He aimed for the marbled stairway, running faster with each breath.

As he closed into his destination, a huge blast erupted from behind, sending him barreling head first towards the ground.


	8. Chapter 8

All Tadashi could feel was heat. It seared through his back like a knife and a piercing light struck his eyes. He tried to turn away, but an unseen force took him by surprise, dragging him across the gravel.

_"Shit shit. Hamada! Can you hear me?"_

He could barely open his eyes.

_"Come on Hamada, isn't this supposed to be your element? You gotta do it right. Get up!"_

Do it right? He could feel himself drifting away, his hazy mind bringing him back to a foggy, obscure region left repressed. _Get up, you're making breakfast today_. A small figure clambered on top of him. He stared at it and his hands instantly reached out.

_Laughter and blood._

Then there was the blood. A pool begun to form around him and the pain was greater than anything he could remember. Greater than the time he broke his arm trying to repair a machine. It was an emotional sort of pain, the kind no one really remembers or forgets- the kind that lingered with intensity. It ended with a sloppy, smacking sound and a lot of weeping that sounded so familiar. He was crying: but why?

Then consciousness started washing itself onto him. He was on a marbled surface and someone had wanted him to get up. Tadashi staggered to his feet before a new pain in his ear immediately overcame him, sharp enough to kick him awake.

Tomago.

Tadashi stumbled around blindly, his feet unsteady and unaccustomed on the smooth, polished surface. He nearly slipped when a firm grip suddenly steadied him, propelling him upright once more.

"Can't you just stay down when I need you to?"

Tomago ransacked his bag and dug through the contents. She retrieved the first-aid kit and tossed it towards him.

"Your wound re-opened. You got another ten minutes to fix it up and we'll get moving. They're on the fourth level."

Tadashi's hands instinctively moved towards his injury and sure enough, a sticky wetness had seeped through the fabric. He removed his shirt and began undressing his wound, his eyes surveying the area around him. Tadashi realized that they were on the second level and the steps of the stairs behind them were trailed with intermittent spots of blood. He also noticed Tomago had moved a sizeable distance away from him, her eyes especially fixated on a particular spot across the building.

That or perhaps she was just uncomfortable with being near him. But there was nothing surprising about that, especially if someone had a wound like his own. A scab had initially formed around the area where half the stitches once were, but now it was simply a torn mess of black crust and blood. He cleaned his abdomen slightly with the less soiled portions of the old bandage, and began wrapping it with the new roll.

"You called her name, you know."

Tadashi narrowed his brows, his hands moving faster. "Who's name?"

"Sara."

Tadashi's body lurched as he registered the name being said. He had not heard that name in eleven years.

"You said it while you were out. You said a lot of things." She suddenly stopped, and Tadashi realized the roll of bandage in his hands had been crushed.

It had been that way after the outbreak since Tadashi could remember. Conversations about his past life were off-charts and many treated it like poison; they avoided any mention of his wife or daughter.

He smoothed the bandage down roughly.

"She didn't get into an accident."

Tadashi could see Tomago's body instantly stiffen.

"I shot her."

Suddenly there was a weight upon Tadashi's shoulders. He felt vulnerable and foolish, as if he were a young child caught lying by a parent.

"When it first happened, they used to say that the moment someone gets infected, it takes less than a few days for them to turn into one of those _things._ The symptoms were supposed to be obvious what they didn't say was that for some people, even the airborne spores are lethal. They can stay latent, _waiting_, until one day it just _happens. _You don't even have to get bitten."

Tadashi began tearing pieces of the leftover cardboard roll, willing himself to continue.

"I thought Sara had a cold." He fingered the piece of cardboard in his hand, swallowing as he did so. "I gave her Ibuprofen and every other thing I could find, but the fever only went up and she couldn't breathe properly. I shouldn't have left her alone but I needed to go out to get her more. And when I came back-"

"And?" There was a forced tranquility in Tomago's voice.

"It was dark and there was a crowd outside my room. They said they could hear something so someone tried to force their way in. But I got up and sprang the guy. I… I didn't know why I did that. I just didn't want anyone to know about Sara. And then suddenly everyone was onto me. Someone pinned me to the wall and said I was hiding something behind the door. But they were right because I didn't dare to open it."

Tadashi gripped the piece of cardboard and wrenched it into two. "I didn't want to find something that wasn't my daughter in there."

He looked down at his trembling hands and closed his eyes, trying to concentrate.

"They managed to break the door open and everything that happened next was all movement. Suddenly Sara was on top of a man, screaming her lungs out like some feral animal. Her mouth was just inches away from his throat. Then just a second later I had a smoking pistol in my hands and black fluid was running down my shirt, angled upwards onto the door of my room, across the floor… Her blood turned black and it was everywhere."

"I remember that look in her eyes. It was the same kind you see in those who are way past the mark. There was no sanity left in them." Pieces of cardboard gathered into a small pool around his feet and stuck onto his shirt, serving as an eerie and morbid reminder. "FEDRA came in and checked us for mucosal contact and crap before tossing her body away like it was shit. I cried like a bitch the entire time."

He was thankful Tomago didn't pursue the matter any further.

* * *

The climb up the stairs was slow, riddled with tension and silence. Tomago's eyes flicked up and down the man in front of her as her mind tried to process the sudden revelation. His sudden change in behaviour and extreme, violent revulsions to any thing concerning the matter: It all made too much sense to her now. It was his only coping mechanism and personal form of punishment.

Only once in her life had she felt so lost for words.

_Should have been you, _a voice whispered in her head. Tomago frowned. Perhaps it was right. After all, everyone left here was forsaken by everything, even the most divine. The only reason she was standing here and walking towards the fourth level was because _they_ didn't want to let her go yet. No, they would never leave her alone. _The scent of dank musty walls, the people huddled together and crying for salvation. Clasped hands holding onto one another tightly_. It still haunted her and burned images behind her eyes.

The rattling of the doorknob made Tomago jerk. Tadashi was trying to unlock the door, his face creasing in annoyance.

"You mind helping me out?"

Tomago realized she was still holding onto the key, her knuckles clenched whitely against them. It took her a few seconds to release them from her hold and mechanically she moved towards the door, sliding the key into the lock smoothly.

"There's no one here."

Tomago look dazed, her brown eyes unfocused and stunned. Then her gaze snapped right back, barely concealing the anger that flared through.

"What the hell?" She roughly pushed past Tadashi, only to come face to face with a decrepit, bare room and true enough, there was no one to be seen. Whatever that she saw in front of her, she refused to believe it. She pushed the thought away from her head, and began yanking away the broken cabinets and bits of furniture that lined the floor.

Tadashi watched her with arms crossed, his mouth forming a taut line across his face. He reached out for her arm, pulling her away from the wreck. "Kid, you've got to stop this now. It's not working."

But Tomago fought against his grasp, running towards a cabinet placed against a wall. "N-no, there must be some kind of entrance some where," she panted as she pressed her body against the wood, trying to move it. "Help me move this!"

Tadashi made no attempt to move or reply. He watched as Tomago futilely tried to push the cabinet away. Her hands shook as she pushed with all her weight, the skin on her hands stretching tightly around her bony fingers. She stopped and slumped down the cabinet resignedly, her face filled with exhaustion and defeat.

The skeptical expression on Tadashi's face reminded her of herself. Especially the long, exhausting fights she had with her sister. Honey. Honey, who always tried to see the best in every situation and person. She never said it outright, but Honey had always thrived on hope. Even when Tadashi and Sara were gone, she still believed that there were people out there who would make things better.

_But you never believed in her_.

"Shut up." She muttered to herself. It wasn't that she never believed in Aiko. She no longer had hope for anything and Honey was so relentless in proving the world had hope that it scared her

_Honey pushed herself off the brink for you. It's your fault._

"Let's continue to find Krei. They can't be too far off."

His offer took Tomago aback. She recovered quickly, catching his eyes as Tadashi offered a hand to her, hoisting her off the ground. A steely, hardened gaze had replaced the doubtful one. But suddenly his hand tightened around her wrist and he pulled her towards him.

"What?"

A quick set of footsteps and an unfamiliar voice made her body freeze.

"It won't be necessary for you to look anymore."

* * *

**A/N: Thank you for the reviews and patience! **


	9. Chapter 9

"It won't be necessary for you to look any further."

Tadashi's head snapped back at the familiar voice- _Alistair Krei. _

His eyes narrowed as he watched the well-groomed man pace around the room, like a cougar sizing its prey. How long had he been watching them for?

"Didn't expect to see _you_ here, Hamada."

"We both have business to deal with," Tadashi spat.

"Well of course." He reached into his breast pocket, and delicately balanced between his fingers a blue, microchip. He examined it with feigned interest before putting it back into his pocket. "Why else would you be here?"

"Cut your bullshit and just get on with it." Tomago hissed. "Where's the boy?"

"My my, Leiko. Why the spite? I thought we were friends." Krei's voice had dropped a notch lower. "After all, _you _were the one who brought your playmate's chip to me."

Tadashi could feel the rage course through his body. He was nearly about to act on it when he felt Tomago's vice-like grip seize his arm, a steady reminder of the vulnerability of their position. A part of him burned with anger at Tomago for her betrayal. The entire fiasco wouldn't even have taken place if she hadn't so _graciously _offered his chip to Krei on a silver platter. But it wasn't worth compromising his prototype for his ongoing personal feud with either of them. He turned his attention to Tomago, whose face had visibly softened- was it guilt he detected in her eyes? Her unexpected reaction stunned Tadashi momentarily, allowing himself to relax slightly in her grasp.

Krei watched their interaction with detached amusement. The two of them were once the scientific field's most outstanding individuals. He remembered Hamada and Miyazaki as the good-natured kids with the impressive robotics display at the SFIT showcase. It was interesting to observe how people changed when placed in adverse, extreme conditions. It reminded him of the Stanford Experiment; prisoner and guards. Except they were all prisoners trapped in this fiendish world. Prisoners who had adapted to the violence and degeneration set into the slowly dying globe.

_If only they knew how much their skill sets were worth in the underground market. _

Both were first-class graduates from SFIT. Leiko Miyazaki was known for her flawless automotive and aerospace designs while Tadashi Hamada's genius in Artificial Intelligence had remained unparalleled in the healthcare sector for years on end. But Krei, on the other hand, prided himself on having the best of both worlds. He single-handedly built up Krei Tech with little more than a good mind and a couple of tinkering tools. It was child's play for him. Another invaluable skill he possessed though, the one that distinguished him from the rest, was his eye for business.

And he knew when to grab an opportunity when he saw one.

The contours of Krei's face shifted as his mouth morphed into a sickening grin.

"Bring the boy in," he spoke into the receiver.

* * *

The boy didn't even look anywhere remotely close to his age. His eyes were sullen and his skin cast an unhealthy yellow gleam. An oversized blue jacket covered his scrawny frame, making him look smaller than he already was. He'd clung onto a pillar in the far corner of the room the moment he was brought in, as though it were his only saving grace. He spoke no words, with only the occasional incoherent mumbling as his eyes ran around the room in an unfocused fashion.

"He's about thirteen to fourteen." A uniformed male had simply said, referring to the boy with as much emotion as a person to a stray animal. Tomago walked over and tried to reach out for the boy, only for him to recoil further into his own arms, which were tightly wound around his knees.

"What did they do to you?" Tomago asked in a hushed whisper. It pained her to see someone act so fearful- especially a child as young as he.

Krei strutted over and pulled the boy up, who whined in protest at being manhandled suddenly.

"Hiro," the man addressed the struggling boy, who refused to cooperate.

"Hiro!" His voice was now louder and firmer, commanding respect and acknowledgement. The boy, Hiro, they supposed, calmed down slightly, but still refused to look Krei in the eye.

"I want you to meet Tadashi Hamada and Leiko Miyazaki. They'll be taking you to the SFIT laboratory."

"L… Laboratory?" The word came out of Hiro's mouth slowly, like he was testing it with his tongue.

Krei stared at the boy with a hardened look. "It will be fine, Hiro."

Tadashi and Tomago looked on in astonishment as the seemingly simple and placatory phrase sent the boy into a panicked fit.

"No," he wheezed violently, backing away from Krei. "No. I don't want to go back. I don't want to go back. Please don't let me go back."

"Compose yourself, Hiro."

"I don't want to go back. I don't want to go back."

The boy repeated the words mindlessly as his voice rose, verging on screaming. But then Krei peeled off a strip from the side of Hiro's neck and suddenly everything fell silent. The boy crumpled into his arms almost immediately.

"What the fuck was that for?!" Tadashi exclaimed, as he watched Krei lay the boy on the ground. "What did you do to him?"

"It's called sedation. Given your prodigious intellect, I thought you would've known, Hamada."

Tadashi walked towards the boy and examined him. His chest was rising up and down erratically, but his serene expression was what unnerved Tadashi. It was almost as though his young shoulders were free from the burdens of the world, silently appreciating the peace that would be ripped away once time worked its way through his system. He bent down beside the boy and picked him up, handing him to Tomago, who shifted him into her arms with a gentleness Tadashi thought she had forgotten.

He then turned to face Krei.

"I give you my word that we'll take him there. But I want the chip back."

"When did your word become enough leverage?" Questioned Krei.

"You know you can easily find and kill me if we don't get the job done."

"Of course I know I can find you. I do have connections and information that you cannot even fathom, boy. Or how else would I have lured the infamous Tadashi Hamada out of his little eel pit?" Krei snickered mockingly. "But kill you? No… There's nothing in for me on that one, especially if I tried to kill someone involved with the APEX like you, wouldn't it?"

Tadashi's body stiffened.

"It's no secret in the underground that you've been with them. It's old news. Why do you think you haven't gotten expelled beyond the borders with that attitude of yours? The APEX wants you alive, Hamada." He tapped his breast pocket. "And I have the entire reason right here. So that gives me immunity. I have the technology to easily improve on what you already have. There's no doubt I can make it more… profitable."

"My relationship with all these organizations are purely business in nature, but I can let you in on a little secret." Krei continued, "FEDRA is winning the fight against the Fireflies. Hiro is an immune. The Fireflies think that he is their trump card to reversing the situation. I can even assure you that this child is worth more than the average immune. Perhaps even more than what your little chip can offer."

There was a brief moment of silence as Krei regarded the boy in Tomago's arms carefully.

"The Fireflies have always meant well, but they're going nowhere with the wishful thinking. But the APEX… The APEX is a new breed on its own. An apt name too, if I may say. Pinnacle of its food chain, really. Comprises of the top minds around the globe. It's no wonder they besot you. They actually give FEDRA a run for their money this time." Krei let out a breathy laugh. "But they're _so_, _so, so,_ dedicated to the cure, that they'll stop at nothing. I'm sure you know that well enough."

"What are you trying to say?" Tadashi growled through gritted teeth.

"What I'm trying to say is that aside from those ghouls, you have people on your tail who hope you fail, Hamada. No one likes sharing the credit for a cure. Don't say I didn't warn you. We are after all… acquaintances. But speaking of which, I still need some form of security. You are after all, a very risky investment. You'll get the chip back after you get the job done."

"I don't see why you can't get the job done yourself, if you're such a big shot." Tadashi remarked snidely.

Krei shrugged nonchalantly. "My sphere of protection ends beyond the walls that cordon off the Halls from the borders. I prefer to remain the undetected middleman. People come to me for dealings and operations because I can guarantee them success. Being part of the action just deters that from happening. That's what we have you people for, after all. People who don't mind doing the dog job for a lump sum."

"So you'd rather send people who you think are replaceable because you're afraid of dying?" Tomago jumped in angrily. "You're a bastard, you know that?"

"You're one to talk for someone who has no qualms betraying their own kind." Krei goaded. "And you willingly partook in this."

Krei's eyes snapped to Tomago, who had her own flip knife drawn back in a reverse grip in her free hand.

"You have no idea how close to death you are right now." Snarled Tomago, only to be met with an unperturbed look.

"And I have snipers who can take you down immediately with just a command." He replied monotonously. "I did not get to where I am by playing nice, apocalypse or no apocalypse. Look where being nice put your sister at, Leiko Miyazaki. Dead, never to be seen again."

Tadashi felt his fist connect with Krei's face the moment he stopped. The older man stumbled backwards from the force, but recovered almost instantly. He wiped the blood off his nose, chuckling to himself. "Nothing lasts forever. Surely you've come to accept that out of all people, Hamada."

"You think of me as an unscrupulous businessman and I cannot deny that I like a good bargain." Krei offered him a pleasant smile. "But I'm not always the bad person you think I am. I have the capacity to be a good partner. It would be nice if you knew how to compromise once in a while. I bid you two well on your journey."

Not waiting for their response, Krei turned to go, leaving behind an ebbing trail of his silhouette, a boy, and all the unanswered questions in the world racing through their minds.

* * *

**A/N: I'm really sorry for taking so long to upload. Please rest assured that I have not abandoned this project yet, and I have many more plans for it too. Things are going to get pretty confusing but they'll clear up once I start on the next few chapters. Once again, thanks for reading!**


	10. Chapter 10

Hiro never trusted adults. They smelt like hand sanitizer all the time, they were hard to understand, paradoxical and often more than not, hurtful, both physically and emotionally.

They smiled a lot at him and always used sweet voices to tell him things. _You're doing fine. It'll be okay. It won't hurt. This will only take a while. _They were all lies. But Hiro wasn't stupid. He knew how to discern lies from truth. One just had to swing the opposite direction to get a precursor of what lay ahead.

He even lied to himself once in a while. They helped him to cope and sometimes they were even _encouraging_ on the days he felt too sore to get up.

Today was one of those days. He woke up feeling sore again. It was nothing new, and he simply lay limply on the ground, slowly processing everything. Something felt out of the ordinary. No, he should be looking at the white, pristine walls that smelt like sanitizer. But he found himself staring into the brightness of the sky, and breathing in what smelt like grass and dirt. He closed his eyes again because the sun's glare was too disconcerting and it hurt his head. Then he heard two voices conversing with each other. One masculine and one feminine.

Masculine and feminine.

Masculine and feminine.

He repeated them quietly in his head, because he could not remember how to use his voice.

"When will he wake up?" said the masculine voice. He sounded very impatient, like he wanted to hurry off to somewhere. Hiro had never been in a hurry before. There was nothing to rush away to, because it was dangerous outside. That was perhaps the greatest mystery to him. He had never been "outside" before. He wasn't sure if the compound outside the tower was counted, because it was all fenced up. He vaguely remembered being taken onto an aircraft to some place, but there was no concrete thought or feeling he could latch onto to bring back the memory.

"The sedative should wear off soon. It's been almost one day." Replied the feminine voice. She sounded calmer and it reminded him of the nurses back in the white room.

One day? Had he been asleep for one day? Hiro couldn't remember. The sun was burning onto his skin and he felt dizzy. The pounding at the back of his head only meant that a level eight headache was approaching. Level eight because it was going to be intense but still bearable if he clenched his teeth.

Somewhere in the back of his head Hiro remembered that he liked the number eight. There were ten numbers in the perfect scale. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine and ten.

But there was something special about eight. Eight was a good number, because it was far away from the bottom, but it wasn't an extremity either. It meant that he wasn't special enough. He didn't like to be special; they called him the "unique test subject", all the time and ran all sorts of tubes and needles into his body. It always burned and made him feel like regurgitating out everything he had eaten.

The voices started speaking again and Hiro wondered seriously for a moment if he was going crazy.

_Masculine and… feminine._

_Masculine and feminine._

Then he recalled that he heard them before. He wasn't going crazy.

"Has he been… abused?" the feminine voice questioned.

"I checked him the previous night. I couldn't find any traces, but we don't know what these people can do with technology. For all we know he's covered in puncture marks that we can't even see."

He felt someone run a hand through his hair.

"Poor kid. I can't imagine what he's been through."

It was the first time in a long while since Hiro had ever associated human contact with comfort.

* * *

Tadashi peered through the blinds of the shack that served as their temporary hideout. The walls were nearly in sight- they could cross the border by tomorrow if the weather conditions allowed it. For now, he could only sit on the worn out couch and watch the droplets of acrid rain splatter onto the muddy ground. It was dangerous around here, with congregations of the infected running amok. But the attacks were sparse and they could usually be anticipated.

Within the confinements, the population of infected were usually kept in check to a certain degree. A large majority of the ghouls only survived up to the runner stage. But beyond the border, there was no law or control. There were those _things_ of varying stages and infection and to top it off, bands of rogues dominated the plains beyond the borders. What was more dangerous than the infected? An insane, power-hungry rogue. Run-ins with them were near impossible to avoid.

"Are you going to take it?"

Tomago was holding out a belt of ammunition towards him. She was soaked and her wet hair clung limply onto her face. She shook the belt underneath his face once more, and he snatched it from her, slinging it over his shoulder.

"So much for manners," she scoffed, slightly annoyed, as she removed her jacket and hung it on the couch to dry.

"You're one to talk." He muttered distractedly.

"Don't pull a Krei on me." She huffed, leaning against a peeling wall. "I braved the weather out there to get ammo, you know."

Tadashi grunted in response.

Her eyes trailed towards the boy, who was still lying limply on the couch. "He woke up a couple of times yesterday when we were out in the field. He doesn't talk much though. Could barely get a word out of him."

"Can't blame him. Imagine if you woke up in a completely unfamiliar setting with two random people staring down at you. I know I would be fazed."

"Tadashi," Tomago called out unthinkingly. He turned around in surprise, but she was staring at the ceiling, caught up in her own reverie. "What is this APEX that Krei was talking about?"

"It's an organization. You could say it's like a modified version of the Fireflies. These people actually have the ability to get things done."

"Are you part of them?"

"In a way. I was approached by Callaghan to design prototypes for a type of tech that could aid molecular reconstruction."

"The SFIT professor?!" Tomago stared at Tadashi in disbelief. "But didn't he… Wasn't he caught in that fire during the outbreak?"

"Well, surprise. He's alive. Don't look so shocked Tomago, weird shit happens all the time here. My latest project was born because of it."

"Baymax?"

"Yeah. At first I thought he was the one funding the project, but I found out the funding came from another bigger organization, which was the APEX. I don't usually deal with fat cats because they're hard to wash off once you get them on your hands. But Callaghan brought me their blueprints and… impressive is an understatement. They've got tech, they've got money and they've got people. They're at the closest point that anyone has ever gotten to finding a cure."

"So you're building Baymax _for _them?" Tomago moved towards Tadashi and watched the rain.

"Not exactly the priority. I was trying to gather intel for them to infiltrate FEDRA's system. The entire perimeter around the walls are rigged and I needed time to figure them out. My last run was for that purpose. The scavenge was just a cover up."

"Is Krei going to sell the chip to the APEX?"

"Not unless he can upgrade it. The APEX can easily obtain the blueprints of my current prototype if they really wanted to. But I won't put it past Krei to do that if we fail. He'll need something worth just as much to recuperate the loss and the upgraded chip is the perfect solution."

"The APEX must be full of _nice _people then," Tomago said sarcastically. "It almost seems like they wanted you dead when Krei was talking about them."

"Maybe they do. Maybe delivering the kid to the Fireflies' lab is all it takes to get a cure and maybe they want to be the only ones who get there. They're already so close. It's fucked up, but that's the way the world works. Pride above everything else."

Tomago nodded briefly and Tadashi found how she accepted such a twisted way of life so quickly rather amusing.

"So how does Hiro fit into all of this?"

The question caught him off guard and Tadashi fell silent. Except this time, it wasn't on purpose. It was a genuine, confounded silence that perturbed him. Krei had mentioned that Hiro wasn't the average immune, but what made him different? Did he possess some special antibody that the rest of them did not? And how did he even get his hands on Hiro in the first place? And what did they do to him that made him so afraid?

"Never mind, I shouldn't have ask-"

"No," Tadashi interrupted. "It's just that, I don't know. There's a lot that we don't know and we probably will never know. We're just disposable players in their big game."

* * *

"I don't want to go back."

Tomago and Tadashi watched the boy's tiny frame rock back and forth on the chair for what seemed like the hundredth time as he muttered the same phrase repeatedly. Both were unsure about what to do, or how to comfort the distraught child in front of them. How they would make it across the wall and past the border was beyond Tadashi's wildest imagination.

Everything went wrong the minute he opened his eyes. He tried to run, and Tomago had to grab him by the waist just to stop him from trying to escape or hurt himself. The boy was obviously terrified. He had cried out in some garbled language with a hoarse voice- Japanese? It had the distinct twang to it that Tadashi heard many times in his childhood. His father was a Japanese and he had attained a certain native proficiency of the language. Although it was too fast and muddled for Tadashi to properly understand what the boy was trying to say, he did pick up some words like "aunt" and "cat".

But the moment Tomago relaxed her hold, Hiro lashed out with ferocity that bewildered even Tadashi. He kicked out high and hard, catching Tomago directly in the ribs. She let go of him immediately and he dashed towards the couch, burying his face in the upholstery of the couch.

* * *

"He's just scared." Tomago said, as she rubbed the ointment over her bruised abdomen. She winced when she accidentally pressed too hard against it.

Tadashi frowned slightly. "I know."

The boy suddenly stopped, and looked uncertainly at the two adults.

"I don't want to go back."

But this time, it sounded like a definite statement.

Tadashi bent down beside the boy. "You don't have to if you don't want to. No one's going to make you go back there." Tadashi had little clue of wherever this place the boy was referring to. But the boy had barely spoken more than those six syllables and Tadashi would hang onto the slight thread of chance for conversation he had been offered by the boy's sudden clarity.

Something moved in the boy's face as he stared at Tadashi with intense deliberation. Tadashi could almost feel the gears in Hiro's head turning, carefully measuring the pros and cons.

"Did you own a cat before?" asked Tadashi. He could not fathom what prompted him to ask that question or its purpose.

But whatever it was, it seemed to work. An involuntary smile had flashed across Hiro's face at the mention of said cat.

"Mo-chi."

There was something soft and childlike in the way the boy mouthed the first syllable with a satisfying pop of his mouth. He repeated the word twice, and his smile grew brighter, revealing a perfect set of white teeth. _He deserves that much at the very least_, thought Tadashi. There was little left in the aftermath of the world that allowed moments like such. The cat must have been a fond, if not, distant memory.

"That was her name." He told Tadashi.

"Do you remember anything else?" Tomago probed softly, now squatting next to Tadashi.

Hiro sat upright and stared at Tomago, stopping abruptly. Then he suddenly shook his head, his big, hazel eyes devoid of expression. "Are you going to conduct a test on me?" He asked quietly, tucking his head down.

"Why would-" Tadashi began, but backed off as Tomago shook her head.

"Hiro," Tomago called out gently. "We don't have to talk about that if you don't want to." Tadashi knew she was trying to distract him. "Here, how about I tell you about myself instead? I know Krei said my name was Leiko, but you can call me Tomago."

She waited for him to look up, before she continued. "I used to do a lot of mechanic stuff when I was your age." Hiro remained silent. "Tadashi's a robotics engineer. He went to college with me."

"What's a college?" Asked Hiro softly.

"Just a place where a bunch of nerds like us congregate in." Hiro looked at her with genuine confusion, earning a smile from Tomago. "It's a school for higher education. You get to attend lectures and create stuff."

Hiro sat up. He felt like he could _trust_ Tomago, but he didn't know. Everyone he knew always wanted something from him. Things he never knew he could offer but apparently could give. There was something thick and hard stuck in his throat and he knew he was going to cry. Crying was already bad enough. But to cry in front of complete strangers was just embarrassing.

"I'm sorry for hitting you." He felt afraid and guilty. "I didn't mean it. I really didn't mean it."

"No, don't be sorry." Tomago said, pausing for a few moments before she added with a dangerously low voice. "The people who made you feel like you need to act like that are the ones who should be sorry."

Hiro hesitated for a few moments before he nodded and slumped back into the couch.

Tomago had to leave the shack to compose herself.


	11. Chapter 11

They left before sunrise and the journey had been mostly uneventful and silent. Hiro had been completely disorientated the moment his foot touched the ground outside the confinements of the shack. He moved around with the unsteady gait of injured game, so much that it was nearly _painful _to watch.

"Can you lighten up? You don't need to be so tense all the time."

Tadashi watched with mild amusement as the boy seemed to shrink back further into his already oversized jacket at Tomago's comment. He probably thought he did something wrong again. The kid barely spoke and there was so little they knew about him. Where was he originally from? They said the kid was in his pre-teens, which meant that he was born before the outbreak. _Almost like Sara. _

He slowed his pace until he was next to Hiro.

"This place looks like shit doesn't it?" Tadashi pointed towards the clearing. Crumbling buildings splashed with the warm glow of sun lined the sides of the path, accompanied by the sporadic appearance of overgrowth- the only reminder that life still existed beyond destruction. Hiro stopped momentarily and regarded the desolation in silence. All of a sudden, the world seemed too vast; the rustling of the leaves, grinding of sand, crackling… Unfamiliar sounds echoed around him and Hiro narrowed his eyes at the rising sun, using the pain to help him focus.

_I need to stay in control. _

"It looked nicer in the past." Hiro answered plainly, his eyes still fixed on the horizon.

Tadashi cocked an eyebrow towards Tomago, not knowing what to make out of Hiro's response. _How could he remember what it used to look like? He would've only been a toddler. _Tomago glanced at the two of them- she could understand Tadashi's confusion. Hiro was a rather odd boy in his own right.

"Bright lights make my head hurt but things are clearer after I look at them." Hiro said, kicking the dust beneath his shoe.

Tadashi frowned. "Bright lights?"

Things always revolved around Hiro in a haze. He didn't have much recollection of the events that occurred around him, and his eyes always played tricks on him. Yet in spite of it all, lights always loomed above him. He counted on their sharp, white glare to bring him back to his senses. The pain was almost… good, in a strange sense.

But recently he had been forgetting things, as though they were slowly slipping past his grasp and going down a void. It made him slightly afraid. Like he was _losing control_.

Like he wasn't even sure about himself anymore.

Hiro blinked twice, the bright light emanating from the sun comforting, yet all too overwhelming. Then he shrugged his shoulders.

He didn't even know why he mentioned it.

* * *

Their first encounter with the infected was perhaps the most disastrous thing to ever happen in Tadashi's entire post-outbreak career. They had just stepped into the clearing before a wandering monstrosity had haphazardly thrown itself against the trio. Tomago fired her revolver on instinct. The gunshot served its purpose, but the loud reverberation caused everyone to stop dead in their tracks.

"Shit!" Tomago cursed, as blood-curdling shrieks elicited from the ruins beyond the clearing.

"What the hell were you thinking, genius?" yelled Tadashi, as he twisted his own revolver free and brought it up with a free hand. "Why didn't you silence it?!"

Tomago shot him a dirty look, but kept her mouth shut. Judging by the distance of the sound, running was not an option. They had to continue moving forward. It was hard enough for the two of them to hold their ground on their own, but the task would near impossible if there was a flustered kid in tow.

"Hiro, listen," Tomago stepped in front of the boy, whose attention instantly focused on her. She clutched Hiro's shoulders; she could feel the boy trembling underneath her palms. "In about a few minutes, we're going to get swarmed-"

"And you're going to take my revolver and shoot anything that moves which isn't me or Tomago." Interrupted Tadashi, shoving the butt of his revolver into Hiro's chest. The boy's startled eyes darted around the area anxiously before he stepped back, shaking his head. Frustrated, Tadashi forcibly thrust the revolver at the boy once more, but instead of accepting it, Hiro grabbed the gun and flung it back at Tadashi. His resistance only angered the latter further, who seized him by the arm.

"Stop that Hamada! You're hurting him!" Tomago cried, as she tried to pry Tadashi away from Hiro. But Tadashi elbowed her away.

"Get this straight, Miyazaki. We're NOT his bloody babysitters." Replied Tadashi harshly. Death was almost the only possible outcome if he refused to cooperate. And if Tadashi had to force cooperation on him to keep them alive, he would do it.

"Don't give me that crap, kid," Tadashi growled, as he tightened his grip on the struggling boy. "You are going to take my revolver, and _shoot_. You hear me? _Shoot anything_ that moves which isn't me or Tomago." He enunciated every syllable slowly, as though he were explaining an abstract concept that was beyond a person's mental capacity. Tadashi waited for Hiro to relax slightly before he released him, forcing the revolver into the kid's quivering hands.

Hiro wanted to scream at Tadashi, scream at the way he was talking down to him and shoving him around, but he could only feel his body give way and cold fear grip him as Tadashi pulled him up by the collar of his shirt.

_He's going to kill you. _

Sure enough, Hiro felt Tadashi's hands come down on him. But instead, they steadied his quivering frame, before clasping themselves over his own hands, moving it across the revolver with a click. Something dropped into Hiro's free hand, before Tadashi moved it up with another click. He repeated the actions with Hiro's hands in rapid succession.

"They don't care if you're immune or not, kid. Right now, they're here to rip into your skull. You're just exterminating. You're not doing anything wrong."

_He's teaching you how to load and reload. _

"It'll get nasty. But you need to get a grip of yourself once you get over the initial shock." Tadashi ordered brusquely, as his hands secured themselves over Hiro's on the revolver, replicating each action with precision. Hiro felt the swift movements mindlessly etch themselves into his memory.

There was a part of Tadashi that felt almost wretched for speaking to Hiro like he did to his scavenge partners back in the safe zone. He was after all, just a boy. But it was a dog-eat-dog world where age no longer mattered to the enemy. There would be no mercy, especially for the young and weak.

"There's going to be recoil on that revolver, so you better be prepared." He let go of Hiro, and signaled at Tomago to begin moving forward.

Tadashi turned back to look at Hiro once more. "Put as much distance between yourself and them. We'll try to take care of things as much as we can."

* * *

Tadashi was right. It was nasty.

The entire clearing had become a blood bath, with corpses, bodily fluid and viscera strewn all over the path. He felt his breath hitch as he fired a bullet straight into the head of one of those… _things. _The chaos made Hiro feel tardy and sluggish, with all its amplified movements and sound. Two of the infected were advancing towards him steadily, and his eyes navigated around the space, desperate to find an escape.

_Left, then right. I'll push off to the side once I reach an opening between those two things. I'll be clumsy on my legs, though, but there should be enough buffer time to pick myself up in the event I fall. _

It was all clearly mapped out in his head. All he had to do was run. Hiro's ears rang as he swerved to the left, dodging an infected's sloppy attempt at grabbing him. The enraged creature snarled, but swiped wildly at him, this time managing to rake its nails across his face. The attack caused Hiro to yank back in shock, in order to shield his face. But the sudden movement twisted his body into an awkward angle, flipping him onto the ground.

_I'm falling too fast to land properly. I have to soften the impact by-_

It took Hiro a sickening moment to realize that he was being roughly forced onto the ground by an extra pair of mangled hands. He landed heavily at an angle, but not the one he had concisely predicted. Hiro felt a sinking sense of dread as the numbers in his head started to dissolve into disarray. Every nanosecond counted and his failure to approximate in his own inability and sudden interference had thrown everything into a downward spiral.

He fought to get back on his feet and his body attempted to steady itself, searching for a gravity that wasn't there. Hiro tried to use his arm to push himself off the ground, only to let out an agonized cry as a stabbing pain shot through his elbow. The chill from a cold, stiff hand on his leg was the only thing keeping him from blacking out from the pain. He fought back the urge to dry-heave as the smell of rot permeated the air around him. The creature that attacked him from earlier was dragging its upper torso on the ground, letting out inhuman screeches as it reached a rotting hand out to grab Hiro by the abdomen.

Hiro kicked out with as much strength as he could muster while he struggled with the relentless miscreant. But the hand latched on, its vice-like grip refusing to let go. Flecks of its blackened saliva splattered across his face and its dislocated jaws bloodthirstily gnashed at the very skin of his neck. Amidst the struggle, he could vaguely hear Tomago screaming at him from a distance.

"Use the revolver…USE THE REVOLVER!"

He had dropped the revolver during the scuffle and it was inches away from his face. Hiro twisted under the infected, his eyes filling up with pained tears as he tried to reach for the gun. His shoe was rammed up against the infected's face, and blood throbbed in his ears as he fought to keep the creature at bay.

All Tomago could feel was an irrational surge of rage and fear as she watched Hiro wrestle with the freak of nature in the muck. It was a miracle that he was even holding on altogether, given his inexperience. Was it all about to end there at the mutilated hands of some groaning creature that wasn't even capable of complexity? They had all come so far and had sacrificed too much to be where they were today.

No, no, no. It was too unfair. There was no way she would allow it to end here.

"SHOOT IT HIRO!" Screamed Tomago vengefully, as she shakily made her way towards the injured boy. "SHOOT IT!"

"I can't… reach it!" Hiro choked out. His injured elbow was throbbing excruciatingly and caving under the weight of the ghoul. He gritted his teeth and clawed blindly at the dirt beneath his fingers to keep his balance. "It hurts!"

"JUST USE YOUR HANDS!" shouted Tomago, as she shot out at another infected. "If you can hold it off with your bare hands, you can damn well DESTROY it the same way!"

"MAKE A FUCKING MOVE, BOY!" Tadashi roared from the other end, before he felt his own breath knocked out of his lungs as a heavy one pummeled him to the ground. He fought the infected brute into a leglock and stabbed it directly between the eyes.

Hiro peeled his eyes away from Tadashi and Tomago, and stared at the neck of the savagely snapping infected in front of him.

There was no way they were going to reach him in time.

It was his only hope.

Gasping in pain, Hiro withdrew his leg, allowing the creature to have a clear zone right into his head. He knew how this game would play out. But he would be the only winner.

The infected's arm shot forth once more, but this time Hiro grabbed it and wrenched it backwards with crude force. It reeled backwards slightly with its broken shoulder, which now hung limply from its socket. Its sudden loss of balance gave Hiro some leverage, and he was able to stagger to his feet and stamp harshly onto the creature's neck. There was a nauseating crack, and the infected screeched viciously at the boy's unexpected movement; its nape was now nearly torn, barely connected to the body by a few precariously thin tendons of flesh.

Hiro staggered towards the body once more, and roughly stepped onto the now writhing infected's back. Unexpectedly, he dug one hand into the creature's mangled neck and yanked on its hair with the other hand. He ripped the creature's head upwards with malice he never knew he was capable of, twisting it as though it were the handle of a tap.

Tadashi turned around in time to see Hiro tear the ghoul's dangling jaw into two, regarding the dismembered visage in his hands with an unnatural amount of… morbid fascination? It unsettled Tadashi a little as he observed Hiro; His arms and face were smeared with black grime, and Tadashi thought he shared a disturbing resemblance to a character from a certain horror film, with his frame accentuated by the sludge, dust and sun. His eyes were glazed over momentarily, but whatever emotion there was promptly replaced by fear, as the boy abruptly discarded the head to the side of the creature's supine body. It was almost as if he was afraid of himself.

With a lurch, Hiro stumbled backwards and fell to the ground, gasping heavily. There was a nauseating feeling gnawing slowly at him as he felt his heart palpitating. He wasn't sure if it was from the adrenalin- wait, where did the adrenalin even come from? Was it from the fear of being killed? Or was it from the satisfaction of-

He refused to entertain the thought any further. He rubbed his stained hands on the ground.

_Slow it down. Count to ten. Count to ten. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten._

_I like the number eight._

_I'm not the best but I'm not the worst either._

_It's a good thing._

_I'm not right but I'm not wrong either._

_I'm not wrong._

_It's a good thing._

He chanted it over in his head like a silent prayer. The words were meaningless but they comforted him enough to slow his heart rate. He hadn't done anything wrong. He had done just enough. He had done what was necessary to stay alive.

It was just like Tadashi said.

He was just exterminating.

He wasn't wrong.

There was no need to cry at all.

* * *

"Is your elbow okay?"

Hiro nodded his head as Tomago watched him with concerned eyes. The smell of rot was just too overwhelming for him and he was desperate to wipe the grime off his face. She had been watching Hiro distractedly use his good arm to try to clean the stains off his skin for the past hour or so. Tadashi had gone on a solo run to find more ammunition and medicine; they were already running low on it from the encounter with the recent and previous hordes.

"Does it?"

Tomago's eyes widened, slightly startled by the boy's brusque question and his hand in her face. "What?"

"Does it ever come off?"

"The stain?" She reached out for Hiro's arm, but he flinched and snatched it away. He regretted it almost immediately at Tomago's shocked look.

"It's just that… It's just-" His brows creased he searched for the right words. "…I don't want you to get dirty as well."

Tomago fixed Hiro with a strange look that made him cringe inwardly at himself. But instead, she simply laughed and pulled Hiro's good arm forward.

"Who even talks about cleanliness now?" She huffed as she checked the stain on his arm. "I get weird goop all over me all the time. And not to mention, I'm the one who caused everyone to get into this mess."

Tomago's voice had audibly softened to a whisper and Hiro wasn't sure if he was supposed to hear the last part, but acted like he didn't anyway.

"It's nothing much, we'll just get you some water to wash it off later. You're not going to get it off by rubbing it with your hand or with sand from the ground. If not, it'll probably disappear in a day or two, give or take."

"A day or two?"

"Ghoul crap is nasty. Anyway, did you know the infected don't have digestive systems? Whatever they eat just passes through as it is. So their crap is basically rotting human oozing out of their orifices."

Tomago snickered as she watched Hiro reflexively touch the stains on his hands while listening to her. He shifted uncomfortably on the fallen log he was sitting on and his face slowly twisted into a grimace.

"Since the infected don't have a hunger to satiate," Tomago continued, "they attack to find hosts to spread their virus." She picked at the grass surrounding them, as she pondered on the issue. "But what puzzles me the most is their aggression… If the virus spreads through just a bite, shouldn't it suffice? Why do you think they go out of their way to kill so brutally? I wonder if they derive some kind of sick pleasure-"

She cut her musing short as she noticed Hiro's clear discomfort. She moved over to the boy, patting his back in a soothing gesture. It wasn't his fault. After all, today was nothing short of traumatic, even by her standards.

"At least we made it past the boundary. We should be free from those FEDRA bastards for now." Tomago told him, in an attempt to change the subject. "Don't worry too much. It usually gets better after the first time."

"No, it doesn't." Hiro looked at the setting sun in the distance before adding quietly, "I killed some of those things once too. Before this."

Tomago looked at him in surprise, but he couldn't quite seem to focus on her well. His head swam and everything seemed very far away and irrelevant, like he was the only steady being in the rapid pulse of the world.

The only sound that filled his ears were the droning moans of the infected.


End file.
